September 2016

When the Reed family  — Becca (51), James (57), and their son Drew (26) — decided to re-gain their health through a radical change in diet and exercise, they entered into their project with cautious optimism. Honestly, they didn’t have much to lose. But they never could have imagined how quickly results would follow. In just two months, despite several challenges in the gym , Becca and James have each lost over 25 pounds. Drew, who is still recovering from the gastric bypass surgery he had...

With more than 500 pages to work with in his upcoming autobiography, “Born to Run,” legendary rock artist Bruce Springsteen found room to speak about both his continued struggles with depression as well as the shadow mental illness has cast over his life. “I was crushed between sixty and sixty-two, good for a year and out again from sixty-three to sixty-four,” Springsteen details in his book. “Not a good record.” Springsteen expounds on mental illness, both his own and within his extended...

Having law enforcement officers in schools is not a new concept. The first school resource officer (SRO) was assigned to a school in Flint, Michigan, in the 1950s. But after several high-profile acts of school violence, such as what occurred at Columbine High School and Sandy Hook Elementary School, SROs are more commonplace than ever before. In 2003, there were nearly 20,000 SROs. The National Center for Education Statistics recently estimated that in 2013 there were as many as 30,000. As...

McLennan County leaders are creating a new position aimed at getting individuals with mental health issues the help they need and reducing costs associated with processing them through the judicial system. After the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1, county commissioners will vote to move $50,000 into a fund for a coordinator position that would expand District Attorney Abel Reyna’s pretrial diversion program. Anticipating the potential expansion, commissioners included a $1 placeholder in the...

Few topics stir more controversy in this country than guns. Mass shootings and urban gun violence inflame public passions. Gun control measures divide our political leaders, and elections often hinge on candidates' views of guns. I struggle with issues related to firearms every day, but in a different way. To me, it's not about politics or elections. It's part of my daily job. As a mental health provider, I have to ask all my patients about guns. I spend many of my days and nights caring for...

Stacy Overstreet, PhD., will be discussing Data-driven Strategies to Guide the Implementation of Trauma-Informed Approaches at the Resilience Summit, November 2-3 in Chicago. Abstract: Successful implementation of trauma-informed schools must build consensus for trauma-informed approaches and establish organizational capacity for and commitment to such approaches. The presentation will describe the implementation and impact of professional development training on teacher attitudes toward...

[Ed. note: Cissy White posted this in the Parenting with ACEs group, and it's cross-posted here as a an example of a story about the experiences that many of us with ACEs have! Thanks for posting this, Cissy!] I gave a keynote address to over 100 people. I’m not bragging. It was an epic failure. And an epic personal triumph. I traveled alone, spoke in public, met new people and shared meal times with total strangers! I tackled social anxiety, figured out flights, luggage and directions. I...

A little over two years ago, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law “The Safe and Supportive Schools Framework.” This statute creates the conditions for schools to become safe and supportive by establishing a statewide framework that incorporates trauma sensitiv ity . The law , signed August 13, 2014, also established the Safe and Supportive Schools Commission to provide the legislature and the state with recommendations on how best to ensure that all schools have the time and...

Just knowing that a problem exists – or even being aware of potential solutions – is rarely enough to mobilize a community for action. In Walla Walla, Washington, the has had surprising success in generating community-wide change. They have done this by highlighting the power of collective action and by continually measuring progress towards project goals. The Walla Walla experience demonstrates the value of citizen engagement and evaluation – two of the implementation domains featured in...

On a sunny afternoon in April, I sat on a bench at New York’s City Hall, waiting to interview Mayor Bill de Blasio. He breezed by in shirtsleeves, surrounded by grim-looking advisers. The mayor, too, was frowning. That morning’s papers carried the news that de Blasio’s fundraising activities were being investigated by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, and a state commission on public ethics. The mayor’s new initiative to combat homelessness was being...

Police had picked up Ledwon, 55, in late April from a local shelter in Alamosa, Colorado, where he was hallucinating and speaking garbled Spanish. Likely triggered by a change in medication, Ledwon’s psychotic episode was compounded by crippling anxiety. Police dropped him off in the emergency room—common destination for mental-health patients, but one that may cause as much harm as good. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mental disorders like Ledwon’s caused 5.3...

Television shows such as Orange is the New Black and Oz frequently depict prison officers as rule-breakers much like the inmates themselves, engaging in inappropriate relationships with prisoners or smuggling drugs inside. But they also depict the challenges of these jobs: maintaining order among an incarcerated and troubled population, dealing with the ups and downs of prisoners’ emotional well-being, and managing facilities in disrepair and people in need with very limited resources. Those...